Betony is Stachys officinalis

-
Betony is more than reliable in my garden - it generously reseeds itself to the point that I pull out half or three fourths of the tiny plants every spring during cleanup. By March, the tiny plants are just a few leaves hugging the ground and are easy to remove as I'm taking off the leaves and last year's perennial stems for spring.


Betony is easy to get along with - it has no special soil requirements and will thrive in sun or part-shade down to zone 4 cold winters.


The flower spikes are at the top, then to both sides of an interrupted spike. The one in these photos spent the winter in the garden shed and is happily blooming and making buds.


You can usually get unwanted plants from friends at this time of year. Most of my thinnings become compost. Established plants can be divided in the spring and they can be started from seeds.


Many people use the leaves or the entire plant in many tea infusions and as herbal medicine, especially for headaches. The leaves are dried out of light like most herbs. See Rosewood Herbals for more medicinal information.


Some consider Betony to have magical properties that protect against harm so it is worn in amulets.


Herbs 2000 goes further into Betony's background, "The herb known as the wood betony is commonly considered to be the most important among the Anglo-Saxon herbs. There are at least twenty nine uses of the wood betony in the treatment of physical diseases. At one time, the wood betony was probably also the most popular amulet herb - such amulets were used widely until the middle Ages as a charm to ward off so called evil or ill humors that supposedly brought disease to the human body. The many uses of the wood betony were written down by the medical herbalist Gerard in 1597, he gave a long list of herbal applications for this plant, adding that -"it maketh a man to pisse well"- an inference to the herb's effectiveness against urinary disorders. Most contemporary herbalist neglect the wood betony as a potential remedy, however, the beneficial properties of this herb are worth rediscovering and exploiting."


I just love seeing it scattered around the flower and herb beds, those gorgeous purple-blue tubular flowers decorating every bed and complementing every color combination.


Before you sell your coat to buy plants as the Spanish proverb recommends, check your favorite native plant seed seller - a pack of seeds is only $1.75 at Cheryl Seed.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moldy Tulip Bulbs

-
Image
Moldy tulip bulbs are a big disappointment when you are hoping to fill a bed or some pots. It is not that unusual for their skins to have a bit of penicillin mold but these are beyond that tad bit stage. Mold penetrating tulip bulb  Mold on emerging tulip bulb growth  So, what to do? The plant references say to throw them out and buy new ones but I already spent $22 for 50 of these white tulip beauties. First, they got a soak in 1% bleach solution in the kitchen sink in the hope that the bleach would stop the mold from continuing to grow without killing the life force in the bulb itself. After a good slosh around, I wiped them off to see how much damage was beneath the blue and black.  This tulip bulb is soft to the touch and there is little chance it will thrive in the soil. This basal root on these have been ruined by mold. The final step I took to try to salvage part of them  was to spray them thoroughly with fungicide.  They are all planted in the
Read more

Propagate Begonia Stem Cuttings in water - Cane-like Angel Wing Begonia

-
Image
Propagating by stem cuttings is just about the easiest way to make more begonias for next summer's garden. During the fall, I regularly trim off 3-node long cuttings and put them into the growing pots where they take root. Now that cold weather has arrived, I root the stem cuttings in a vase of water. It's a great way to produce more pots of Begonias for next summer's garden. Water the plant well the day before. Take a cutting about 4-inches long, with 3 nodes, from a healthy stem. Use a perfectly clean container. Rinse the container with a drop of bleach if you are uncertain about its spotlessness. Remove all but the top leaf or two. There should be no leaves in the water. The cutting should  have a healthy leaf node at the bottom. Don't leave a stub below the node. Place the cutting into the water, and place the container out of the sun. In a couple of weeks, you will see new roots beginning to form. Check the water periodically to make sure it is still f
Read more

Create Nesting Areas for Birds and Wildlife

-
Image
From the website, Choose Natives , this lovely and instructive article helped remind me to continue to increase the amount of habitat and nesting that we provide in our garden. Many, though not all, are native or considered to be native in Oklahoma. So, I did a little research on each recommended plant and provided a link to more information. You'll see the plant name in italics - those are my links for your edification. Here's the post Derek Stoner, Project Coordinator for the Delaware Nature Society, helped restore the 860-acre Middle Run Natural Area by “intensive habitat management”, including planting 12,000 trees and shrubs.  His lecture, ‘ Native Plants for Nesting Birds: Connecting Flora and Fauna’,  given to a group of enthusiasts at the Millersville Native Plant Conference   in Pennsylvania, focused on his observations. Here are Derek’s landscaping recommendations for attracting birds: Plant shrubs in clusters (“habitat circles”) that will create the dense
Read more